Walter Tillow discusses how he joined the Civil Rights Movement as a college student and how that led him into labor and leftist movements. He describes his childhood in New York City and the leftist politics of his parents, as well as how he learned about the Movement as a college student at Harpur College and as a graduate student at Cornell University. In 1963, he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and moved to Fayette County, Georgia where he worked on voter registration drives. He later worked in the SNCC communication office in Atlanta. He describes in detail the movement for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. In 1965, he left the Movement to work for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and he later worked for the Communist Party.

The oral history consists of five digital files: 2011.174.99.1a, 2011.174.99.1b, 2011.174.99.1c, 2011.174.99.1d, and 2011.174.99.1e.

Kay Tillow describes learning about the Civil Rights Movement as a student at the University of Illinois, where she got involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She remembers attending the trials of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) workers in Cairo, Illinois, and traveling to Ghana in 1962. When she returned to the United States in 1963 she participated in sit-ins in Atlanta, Georgia, and demonstrations in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. She discusses her work with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1199, a hospital workers' union, and organizing victories in Pennsylvania. Tillow also discusses her role in the Coalition of Labor Union Women and her current work on health care reform.